Mass Effect: Full Cycle
by Kaeim
Summary: Shepard's story never ended at the Citadel, instead, his story began where it all started - Eden Prime. Armed with knowledge of the future, and the drawbacks that came with it, can Commander Shepard succeed where he failed?
1. Chapter 1

**Mass Effect: The Full Cycle**

"_Tell me another story about the Shepard."_

"_Its getting late but, okay…one more story. You see, my sweet, Shepard's story did not end like that. For you see, Shepard did not just die that day, but he came back. Do you remember how the tale of the Shepard began? How he started his great quest to save us all?"_

"_You mean when he encountered Saren?"_

"_Yes, my child. Shepard's story only first started on Eden Prime, when he first received the knowledge of the Reapers. And back there, on Eden Prime, Shepard's story began again…"_

Shepard opened his eyes, his mouth gasping for air as his body burned, disintegrating into ash. Around him, he heard shouting. As his body began to convulse, he felt hands grab his body, trying to hold him into place. Another set of hands grabbed him by the head, exposing his neck and allowing a sharp prick to enter his skin, injecting him with some kind of fluid. Almost immediately, his body began to relax and darkness threatened to overtake him again. The darkness slowly enveloped his sight, the last thing he saw was a familiar face that had died in his arms on the Citadel…

Ashley…

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up."

Shepard groaned as his eyes opened blurrily, images passing through his mind of the last few moments of his life before he had died.

"Where am I?" He rasped, his mouth feeling more dry than the last time he had taken some small time out with Garrus to head to the Normandy's bar.

"Shepard? Do you remember where you are?" A familiar voice began to say.

"Doctor Chakwas?" Shepard rasped. "How did I? What happened? Did we destroy the Reapers?"

"Stay still Shepard, you've been out for over a day. Do you remember what happened to you on Eden Prime?"

"Eden Prime…?" Shepard murmured. "Doctor Chakwas, what happened to the Reapers? Have we won?"

"The Reapers?" Shepard heard a voice mutter in a tone of confusion near to him.

"Shepard, do you remember what happened to you on Eden Prime? Do you remember activating the beacon?"

"I don't understand," Shepard murmured. "The beacon was years ago, what about Earth, Doctor?"

"Could he have had a hallucination, Doctor?" The voice from before asked.

"It's entirely possible, Captain. Certainly, this has never come up in any medical journals before. Anything could have happened to Shepard. I'm afraid this lies outside of my medical experience, if not all medical experience."

"Then our first task is to get him to the Citadel, get him to a hospital."

"No!" Shepard tried to yell, his voice failing him and causing him to start coughing violently.

"Stay still, Shepard, I'm going to inject you again and allow your body to rest. We'll going to get you help, Shepard."

Any protestations that Shepard may have had were overruled when he felt his neck exposed again. Darkness once again overtook him as he felt sleep overwhelm his body.

Shepard awoke again, breathing heavily. Looking around, he found himself in a sterile room, with only a bed as its total furniture. In front of him was a large dark window which allowed people to look at him, but did not allow him to look back. Shepard swung himself from the bed, only to stumble and fall onto his knees, causing him to flinch. He grabbed the bed as he pushed himself back onto his feet, this time taking slow steps towards the window.

"Hello?" He coughed, his mouth still completely dry. "Is anyone there?"

"Executive Officer Shepard? Please remain calm; we are isolating you for both yours and our own safety." A voice suddenly blurted out. "You are currently being held on Arcturus station. Please return to your bed and wait for a doctor to arrive. We will answer further questions shortly after an examination of you."

Shepard blinked in confusion, Arcturus station had been one of the first places to be hit in the war, due to its location protecting the Mass Relay that led to earth. More than 45,000 people had died when the Reapers first entered space in order to invade Earth. Seeing no other choice, however, Shepard slowly returned to the bed and sat down on it, waiting for the doctor to arrive.

It took less than a minute after Shepard had returned to his bed that a door hissed open and a human entered the room. "Executive Officer Shepard? My name is Doctor Renieri. Please remain still while I look over you." Shepard complied as the doctor began to examine him, checking his eyes and mouth, casually humming and ahhing to himself as he did a standard check of Shepard.

"Alright," Renieri finally said after several minutes of looking over Shepard. "There appears to be no physical problems with you, we've looked over the notes passed on to us by your ship's doctor. We'll be keeping you in for further observation while we do a full check of you, but in the meantime I can say with some confidence that you'll be alright."

"Doctor, please," Shepard began. "What's happening? Did we defeat the Reapers? Did the Catalyst work or not?"

Renieri frowned slightly, "Shepard, I'm afraid I can't answer those questions at the moment. All I can say at the moment is that an Alliance officer is coming to speak with you. Perhaps he can answer those questions."

Smiling at Shepard, Renieri stood up and left the room, the door hissing behind him as he left Shepard sat down, dumbfounded. A few minutes later, another man entered the room, dressed in full uniform.

"Shepard? I'm Doctor Brose with the Alliance. I will be conducting a full interview with you regarding the events of Eden Prime, and what you believe has happened. Would you like a drink before we begin?" Brose offered him a cup, which Shepard immediately took and drank in a few gulps, gasping afterwards as he felt the precious liquid wash through his body.

"Now then," Brose sat down on a chair brought into the room by a silent guard and pulled out a datapad. "For the record, can you please inform me of your title and name?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, and would you please tell me what is going on?"

Brose frowned as he began to type into his datapad. "I see…" He muttered. "Alright then, Shepard, from the very beginning, would you please inform me of the events on Eden Prime?"

"Eden Prime…?" Shepard felt his head spin, "what the hell are you on about? What's going on here? Did we or did we not defeat the Reapers?" Shepard began to feel agitated, standing up. Almost immediately, the guard reacted, moving towards Shepard in an attempt to restrain him. Shepard reacted almost instinctively, grabbing onto the guard's arms and throwing him against the wall, before turning towards Brose only to find himself being pinned by two more men who had rushed in.

"Shepard!" Brose yelled, "calm down or we will be forced to take measures!"

Almost against his will, Shepard stopped moving, allowing the two men to push him down against the bed. Brose nodded almost imperceptibly, signalling for the two men to let him go, although neither left Shepard's side, watching him cautiously.

"Alright then, Shepard." Brose said slowly. "Could you please explain what you mean by the Reapers?"

Shepard stared at Brose as though he was an idiot. "The Reapers? Are you joking? Who do you think the Reapers are?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, Shepard. And nor, I wager, does anyone else in this room."

Shepard shook his head slowly as he regarded Brose with horror and disgust. "You mean to tell me you don't know who the creatures attacking Earth and the rest of the damned Galaxy? The monsters who've already killed billions? You don't know who they are?"

Brose's forehead creased in confusion as he looked at Shepard. "The galaxy? Earth? Shepard, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Brose suddenly cocked his head to one side for a few seconds before nodding. "Very well sir." He looked up at Shepard. "Alright Shepard, here's my theory. I think the beacon's screwed up your mind, putting images into your head. I can assure you that there are no Reapers, no one has attacked anything in the Galaxy and you are perfectly safe." He exhaled loudly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Perhaps we got off on the wrong start." He looked at the men still surrounding Shepard. "Gentlemen, if you would? I believe both I and Shepard are perfectly capable of talking without any violence needing to take place."

As soon as the guards had left, Brose began to speak. "Alright then, Shepard, would you please indulge me and tell me what you saw?"

Shepard sighed heavily. "Alright then, I'll indulge you. I don't know what games you people are playing, and you'd better be damn sure that I won't stay here long, but fine. I'll tell you what happened after Eden Prime."

More than six hours later, in which Shepard's voice had grown raspy several times over, he finally finished with Shepard having activated the Crucible that was meant to destroy the Reapers at the cost of his own life. Brose had several hours in been quietly engrossed in his story, at times even appearing eager to find out what had happened next. Now, with it finally over Brose sat up and straightened his back.

"Well," he said quietly. "I'll be damned if that isn't the best story I've heard in a long time. Unfortunately, Shepard, none of it is true. There are no Reapers, the Quarians are still in their fleet, the Krogan still have the Genophage and Earth is most certainly still safe and not devastated. Shepard, I don't know what the beacon has done to you, but I promise you, none of it happened. This is what happened. "You, Staff Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Chief Williams successfully fought your way through dozens of Geth and successfully secured the Prothean beacon. Gunnery Chief Williams approached the beacon and was hit by a beam that dragged it towards her when you rushed in and pushed her out of the way at the cost of you being hit by the beacon instead. Whatever the beacon then did to you, it afterwards was destroyed and left you comatose for more than 18 hours. When you awoke, you had to be secured and put to sleep after which you were immediately taken by the Normandy to Arcturus Station where we immediately isolated you for your own and for our protection while we try and work out what happened. From my perspective, and that of my superiors, the beacon hit you and your mind created this story in order to protect itself from whatever it was that the beacon did to you."

Shepard's head began to spin, tears of frustration threatening to overwhelm him. "No, goddamnit!" He roared, visibly startling Brose and causing for the guards to rush in again, ready to jump on Shepard if necessary. "It wasn't a hallucination or a dream," he said more quietly. "I want to speak to Anderson."

Brose placed his datapad into his pocket and walked towards the door. Just before stopping, he halted and looked at Shepard, sympathy in his eyes. "I'm afraid that's impossible at the minute, Shepard. Captain Anderson is currently at the Citadel with the Council, giving an account of what happened at Eden Prime. I'm not sure when he'll even be back in this sector. As you well know, the Normandy is due to be sent to join one of the Fleets. I'll send word to him that you would like to speak with him, but if I'm going to be frank, I'm not sure how likely he'll be able to return, even if he wishes too. For now, Shepard, you will be looked after here at the hospital until the Alliance has an idea what to do with you. Until then, get some rest Shepard. I'll be back tomorrow to talk with you some more and discuss what we can do to treat you."

And so it followed for more than four days that Shepard remained at Arcturus station. Not long after Brose had visited Shepard, he was moved to more luxurious quarters. Twice a day, Shepard would be escorted to the stations' gardens for a half hour of exercise. Apart from that, however, neither Brose nor any other visitors went to Shepard. It wasn't until the fifth day that Shepard finally received his first visitor.

Shepard was lying on his bed, as he had been for the past few days when the door suddenly hissed upon. Sitting up, Shepard saw Anderson walk into his room followed by Brose, the two men arguing.

"I must insist that you go through the proper protocols, Captain Anderson! You cannot simply walk in here without having booked at least three days in advance! Executive Officer Shepard is still undergoing observation while we examine him in order to ensure that he hasn't suffered any damage from the Prothean beacon!"

"Shepard," Anderson smiled at the sight of him, ignoring Brose's complaints. "It's damned good to see you alright. You left the Normandy in quite a state last time I saw you."

"Captain Anderson!" Brose yelled once more before Anderson turned on him.

"Doctor Brose, I appreciate everything you are doing for Executive Officer Shepard at this time, however, so far as I am concerned he is still a member of my crew, and I will speak to him when I so choose. Please leave both me and him in peace, and make sure your colleagues turn off any recording instruments you may or may not have in the room."

Brose spluttered for a few seconds, before turning on his feet and storming out of the room. Anderson turned back to Shepard, a slight smirk on his face, and looked him up and down.

"Shepard," he said, holding his hand out in a shake. "How have you been?"

"Anderson…" Shepard breathed with an open mouth. "You're alive?"

Anderson frowned, "I should damn well hope so. I certainly feel alive. What happened to you Shepard? What did the Prothean beacon do to you?"

Shepard shook his head, a slight burst of hysterical laughter emerging from his mouth. "You as well, Anderson? Everyone keeps telling me that nothing happened, that I'm back before the whole mess started."

"Shepard?"

Shepard laughed again. "Perhaps I am crazy, who would have ever come up with this kind of story? Machines emerging from dark space to destroy the entire galaxy, the Geth and Quarians solving their differences, me almost single handedly solving the problems of nearly every damned race?"

"I don't think you're crazy Shepard," Anderson said, concern clearly plastered across his whole face. "I think that something did happen to you, something that we can't comprehend. Who knows what was in that Prothean device, anything could have happened to you. Hell, for all we know, you could have seen the future."

"Bah!" Shepard scoffed loudly. "Let me guess then, you and the Normandy went to the Citadel, tried to persuade the Council of Saren's traitorous behaviour, and the Council chose to ignore everything said, right?"

Anderson's mouth popped wide open as Shepard said those words. "How did you? Not even Alliance News Network got hold of this information yet. Who told you this?"

Shepard once again laughed. "I saw it all, Anderson. You were right, I must have seen the future. And damn me if it isn't the worse future I could have imagined."

Anderson pulled up a chair, regarding Shepard with the most seriousness expression that he had ever had. "I think you had better start from the beginning."

"Be ready for a long story then, Anderson."

Several hours later, when Shepard had concluded his story with the deaths of both Anderson and the Illusive Man, Anderson's face was extremely pale. "You mean to tell me that these AIs, the Reapers, are coming?"

"Yes. And they're using Saren to do their dirty work. And I'm trapped here with no one who believes me."

"Goddamn…" Anderson breathed out, wiping his face with a shaky hand. "If you're right, and I've no reason to disbelieve you, then we're in a lot of trouble. We need you out there Shepard, and if I could do it right now then I would be on the way back to the Citadel with you within the next few minutes."

"Then why don't you?"

"You've generated a lot of interest, Shepard. No one knows what the beacon did to you, there's a hell of a lot of theories going around at the moment, and some are even hoping that the entire knowledge of the Protheans was downloaded into your head, believe it or not!" Anderson shook his head again, this time in slight despair. "We need something to prove that you've had the vision, then we can get you out of here and try and do something to persuade the Council about what's coming."

Shepard regarded Anderson with a smile on his face. "Alright then, Anderson, you want something that'll prove I'm not insane?"

"What do you have?"

"How about the information about the location of the last living Prothean?"


	2. Chapter 2

With a gasp, Javik awoke as the pod opened up to allow fresh air and sunlight to enter for the first time in over 50,000 years. Above him, three figures stood and almost instinctively, Javik reacted. Activating his biotic powers, he pushed all three of them away from him, stumbling out of the pod and began to try and run anywhere. Unfamiliar sights appeared in front of his eyes; where grand buildings had once existed, now nothing remained but smoke and ash. Around him, a fire had devastated the land that surrounded his pod, irritating his sensitive nostrils.

Behind him, the figures who had awoken him followed closely as he attempted to run. Unfamiliar sounds came from the three of them as they tried to pin him down. The chase continued for several minutes until at last, Javik was trapped at a top of a building and the three creatures. Turning to confront them, he halted in surprise as he saw biotic energy hover around one of the figures.

With Javik unable to go anywhere, one of them approached him, his hands held up with no weaponry in them. He continued to utter the strange noises, obviously not realising that Javik couldn't understand his barbaric speech. As soon as the figure had gotten close enough, Javik quickly touched part of the man's exposed skin, gasping as memories came to him.

_Grayson…_

_Grissom Academy…_

_Cerberus…_

_Shepard…_

_Sanders…_

Knowledge flooded into his head, the culminated memories of the human, Anderson, all arriving into his head.

"How many," he gasped in the human's language. "How many of my people survive?"

The three humans looked at each other in confusion. "You can understand us?" Anderson asked slowly.

"Yes, now that I have read your physiology, your nervous system, enough to understand your language."

"What did…what did I see?" Anderson asked in confusion.

"Our last moments. Our failure."

"I don't…what were those things? What the hell did I just see?" Anderson rubbed his head in confusion, agitation in his voice. "Those…those things, I saw them with such loathing…"

"You saw them as I saw them, human. You saw the corruption of my people, and our deaths. Tell me human, how long has it been since we disappeared?"

"I…nearly 50,000 years."

Almost 50,000 years… Javik mused for a few seconds. The Reapers had not yet come, he could tell that from the human's memories, and yet the time was close. Agents of the Reapers had already appeared on the very world where he stood now. Husks, they called them, and indeed they were husks of whatever race they used to be. Had he made it this long to make a difference? To end the cycle? Javik asked himself mentally. Only time would tell.

"Who is this…Shepard?" Javik asked suddenly, the name suddenly appearing in his head.

"He's a member of my crew. He was securing one of your beacons when he was hit by it. He told us of your location."

"A beacon? I do not understand…" Javik said in confusion. It had been a deliberate measure of his people near the end to hide as much of themselves as possible in the hope enough of them survived in order to rebuild the empire. Certainly, they would not entrust such information to an information beacon which could be accessed by any.

"Joker?" Anderson said suddenly, cocking his head to one side. "Pick us up immediately, and patch me through to Admiral Hackett as soon as I'm on the ship. We're getting Shepard as soon as possible."

"Aye aye, Captain."

"Executive Officer Shepard, by your own admission, do you admit that you joined the terrorist organisation Cerberus?"

"I worked with them in order to save human colonists." Shepard repeated dully for what seemed to be the sixth time. More than seven hours ago, Shepard had been brought out of his room to face a committee of three Alliance officials. Ever since then, he had been forced to go over his story in as much detail as he was able to provide.

"You do understand that in having done so, you could be dishonourably discharged and held under arrest for up to twenty years?"

"I would find that highly improbable, admiral." Hackett, one of the three members stated. "I would find it extremely odd that we could charge Executive Officer Shepard with this charge seeing as it happened in his mind."

"Perhaps," the first man conceded almost grudgingly. "Nevertheless, if we're being asked to take this story seriously, we must assume then that it happened."

"I think we ought to leave it to the philosophers to determine whether an alternative future ought to be considered as being factual. In the meantime, let us get onto the events regarding the Collectors and Freedom's Progress."

"Admirals," Shepard spoke up. "I've been here on Arcturus Station for days now. First I have been held on grounds that the Prothean beacon did something to my mind, now you seem to be telling me that I'm correct. The question I would like to ask you is am I right? Did Anderson recover Javik?"

The three admirals looked at each other for a few minutes, discussing amongst themselves quietly before Hackett finally looked up at Shepard. "Shepard, although my colleagues strongly disagree with me, I feel you should know the truth. Anderson did follow your instructions, admittedly without orders for which he could have been stripped of his command, and successfully recovered a Prothean."

Shepard leaned back in his chair closing his eyes. Inwardly, he praised any deity that existed that proved that he hadn't just experienced an illusion, that he had been right all along. Although might not have it been better had he been wrong in the first place?

"To that end then, you can see that we're taking your story very seriously indeed. There do continue to exist some doubts about how valid your story is, however. Although you may have found a Prothean, we don't know whether you received that information from the Prothean beacon or because your story is, in fact, true. If the latter, then God help us all…"

"I'm correct, Admiral. And believe me, its going to get bad. You need to prepare, immediately! Last time, we didn't prepare enough and we suffered for it. Earth burned, Admirals. Across the galaxy, billions died. The Reapers are coming, and one of their number is here even now. We need to get to the Council, immediately, and confront them. Saren, the Spectre, is out there breeding Rachni and Krogan, and soon he will amass an army capable of significantly weakening the entire galaxy, and allowing the Reapers to walk all over us, this time even easier than before."

Hackett sighed, "I believe you, Shepard, I really do. I personally think that you've proven your story correct by providing us with the location of the last Prothean. As far as I'm concerned, this means that your story is correct and that we need to prepare. However, we need information, Shepard. Currently, you're talking about using technology not even outside of theory. You're talking about ships not yet completed, and a sense of cooperation that quite frankly does not yet exist through the galaxy. The Council wants to speak to you, Shepard, we intend to present both you and the Prothean to the Council and make them see what's coming."

Shepard sat up straight, looking intently at Hackett. "When am I to leave?"

"As soon as the Normandy arrives with the Prothean, and as soon as we're finished questioning you. Now then, back to the Collectors."

The Citadel was everything he remembered it to be. Unlike the last memories of the Citadel, surrounded by ships fighting to the death for their survival, it now appeared pristine, the system's sun shining through the five Ward Arms. Lights shone from each of the arm, millions of people, alien and human, living on each ward. Shepard was stood with Joker, Ashley and Kaiden, the latter two of whom had been with Shepard ever since he had left the Arcturus station.

"Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley suddenly gasped, pointing at one of the Citadel fleet's ships.

"The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel fleet." Kaiden pointed out.

The Ascension, Shepard recalled. Last time he had seen it, the Ascension had been facing off against two Reapers, whether it had survived he had no idea, but he doubted it somehow. By the time he had gotten to the Citadel, it had sounded as though the battle had gone badly for the massed ships.

"We had plenty of ships similar to those." A voice suddenly emerged. Shepard turned around to see Javik. His four eyes blinked as he took in the assembled fleet. "When the Reapers came, we had a fleet many times greater than the one here. They all fell to the Reapers."

An awkward silence overtook them all as Javik walked forward next to Joker, looking at the Citadel in front of him.

"I have never seen the Citadel before," Javik said softly. "The Citadel was always a myth to my people. This used to be the heart of our civilisation, where we ruled the galaxy, until the Reapers came."

"I noticed that you had biotic powers, Javik," Kaiden suddenly spoke. "Perhaps when you have time, we could go up against each other?"

"Perhaps," Javik only said as he turned to leave.

"Well that was quite awkward…" Joker muttered. "Citadel Control, this is SSV Normand requesting permission to land."

"Stand by for clearance, Normandy." A few seconds went by before the voice replied. "Clearance granted. You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance operator."

"Rodger, Alliance Tower. Normandy out."

"I'd better go," Shepard muttered, walking after Javik. He caught up with Javik on the second floor, just as the Prothean entered the medical room.

"Yes, Shepard?" Javik asked as he continued walking towards the lab at the back of the medical room.

"I was wondering whether you could give me any information on Prothean beacons, and what they did."

Javik nodded as he entered the lab and walked towards a small fountain of water; dipping his hands in them, he entered his explanation. "In my time, the beacons were intended for communication across the Empire. We could contact each planet almost instantaneously without having to rely upon your…_extranet._ At the same time, however, our beacons were also used for activities such as improving ourselves. The beacons were used not only as communicators but also for purposes of entertainment. The beacons could be used to allow us to see a version of events that revolved around the individual using the beacon at the time. Some believed that we were seeing our futures, or at least a version of a future. Less romantic minds however believed that the beacons instead allowed us to enter a world in which the individual saw a future that suited them, and that allowed them to be something else for a while. It was an effective way to pass the time, and to allow us to forget our…troubles. With you, however, I have no idea what happened to you. You shouldn't have known where I was buried, nor should have you received a vision of the Reapers. And yet you did…perhaps it is because you are human, and your mind is less equipped to handle one of our beacons. I do not know, Shepard, nor do I need to know. All that you should be happy about is that you found me, and you know what is coming."

"Hey Shepard, we're just about to dock with the Citadel." Joker's voice suddenly sounded over the com. "Captain Anderson wants you to head over to the Presidium immediately, the Council is expecting you."

"Thanks Joker," Shepard said before turning Javik, only to find him ignoring Shepard, focusing intently on the ripples made in the water by his hands. With nothing more to say, Shepard left for the Garage.

Shepard hadn't been on the station long when his heart took a massive jump as he saw a huge Korgan walking towards him.

"Wrex?" Shepard began to run towards the Krogan, a huge smile on his face. "Wrex!"

The Krogan stopped, a puzzled expression on its face as it looked at Shepard. "I know you, human?"

"I…" Shepard stopped, he had no idea what to do.

"Ahh, sorry about him," Kaiden and Ash ran up behind Shepard, wary expressions on their faces, Ashley keeping a hand close to her pistol holster. "He recently got hit in the head, he's been confused ever since."

Wrex grunted, "Whatever," and walked past the trio.

Kaiden visibly let out a sigh of relief, "Shepard, what the hell were you thinking, running up to a Krogan like that!"

"I…I knew him…at least, I did." Shepard shook his head and began to walk on, only to stop a few steps onwards, his face freezing in horror. "But that means…"

Without warning, Shepard leapt into a sprint, shoving past others in a series of shouts and cries of shock. Containing a swear word, Kaiden ran after Shepard swiftly followed by Ashley. "Joker," she yelled into her comm,"tell Anderson we're going to be late!"

Despite Shepard's brief incarceration at Arcturus station, he was still as healthy as he had ever been, and easily navigated through the crowds of pedestrians. Neither of his pursuers were so lucky, constantly banging into people yelling apologies as they frantically chased Shepard. "How the hell is he so able to go so fast?" Kaiden muttered to himself between quick breaths of air barely dodging a couple of arguing krogan. Suddenly, Shepard stopped completely in front of a nightclub, staring in shock at it.

"Shepard," Kaiden said breathing heavily, "what the hell is wrong with you?" Shepard didn't say anything. Instead, he walked forward into the door into a huge circular room. The room was completely ruined, its furniture thrown apart and bloodstains decorating the walls.

"Hey you!" A turian ran up to the three of them, anger clear across his face. "What the hell do you all think you're doing in here? This place is a crime scene, get the hell out of here now before I bring you all in!"

"Sorry," Ashley said, placing a cutesy expression on her face. "We didn't realise, we've only just docked and thought this place was still open."

"What happened here?" Shepard asked hoarsely.

The turian shrugged, "guess the owner pissed off someone who he shouldn't have. He won't be doing that again, anyway. Wasn't much of him left to pick up after that krogan finished with him."

Shepard nodded slowly, his face still distraught. "Thanks anyway." He turned around as though about to leave, only to suddenly stop and turn around. "If I wanted to find a quarian, where would I look?"

"A quarian?" The turian looked mildly disgusted, "Those sewer rats could be anywhere for all I care, hopefully the morgue."

Shepard's fist clenched slightly as though about to strike, only to restrain himself and nod. "Thanks."

"This is an outrage!" Udina yelled at the holographic image of the Council.

"The Protheans had equal influence upon our civilisations as they did on yours, Councillor. For you to keep the last living Prothean in Alliance hands alone is unacceptable," the Salarian councillor replied calmly.

Shepard placed his head in his hands, groaning slightly as he massaged his eyes. The same argument had been argued repeatedly for hours. Javik, quite simply, was a stumbling point that neither party was able to get past. The possession of a Prothean and of course its knowledge was something that every race desired greatly, and unfortunately for everyone else it had been Shepard and the Alliance who had found him.

"The Prothean was found on Alliance territory, territory which none of you wished to enter! Had you chosen to colonise the Traverse a century ago, it would be us on the opposite side of the argument!"

"But at least the Council would share his knowledge amongst the races; the Alliance on the other hand seems hell-bent on keeping it all for themselves, and merely feeding us the scraps." The turian glared at Udina. "Let us be frank, if the Alliance is unwilling to grant the Council access to the Prothean, then we will be forced to place economic sanctions upon the Alliance."

"You can go ahead if you like," Udina sneered. "You know as well as I do that any economical sanctions upon the Alliance will have dire consequences for your own economies as well."

"Councillors," Anderson cut in. "We can discuss the Prothean issue later. Right now, we have an issue even more threatening than the long term repercussions of the Prothean. The Reapers are coming."

"Ah yes, Reapers. The immortal race of sentient fleets allegedly waiting in dark space. Can we honestly take the word of a single human for this?"

"If you don't believe me, you can ask the Prothean," Shepard replied coolly. "He can confirm everything I've said and more."

"We have not yet been able to secure a personal meeting with the Prothean," the Asari councillor spoke gently. "We will of course ask him about these matters. We have all read your report, Shepard, and if confirmed then we will take action immediately. For now, however, I would rather discuss Saren."

"Yes…Saren." The turian councillor muttered. "I find it hard to believe one of our best agents who did everything we have ever asked of him has suddenly turned traitor to work with the Geth, bring back rachni and clone a krogan army, all under the influence of a Reaper."

"Regardless of what you believe, Councillor, I assure you this is very much the case. He is out there right now actively working to attack the Citadel and bring the Reapers into our galaxy."

"In your opinion, Shepard," the Salarian spoke up. "What would you have us do?"

Shepard began to walk back and forth, speaking rapidly. "We need to immediately construct as many ships as possible, secure as much Prothean technology as possible for examination, bring the entire galaxy into a military stance for total war. Unlike every other race that came before us, we know the Reapers are coming, and we know what they are capable of. We need to be prepared, ready and waiting for the Reapers. They may have lost their advantage of surprise, but that sure has hell doesn't mean that they still don't have an advantage in nearly everything else. It's safe to say this is the kind of enemy that none of us are equipped to fight at this time. We need to change that, immediately."

The turian councillor began to splutter, "Are you crazy? We can't simply just start arming up for no reason!"

"Then give them a reason," Shepard began to raise his voice. "Our problem last time was that people weren't ready for the Reapers because no one would believe that there were Reapers! Even when they did come, people still refused to believe until it showed up right on their doorsteps and destroyed everything around them."

"It would be preferable to panic on the streets, rioting and a collapse of society, looters and pirates taking advantage of the chaos to loot and pillage as they please."

"He's correct, Shepard." Udina interrupted. "We cannot simply tell the people straight away, we have to let the people find out on their own, give them the information and allow them to connect the dots over time."

"And what of Saren?" Shepard demanded.

"A good question," Udina turned to the Councillors, "what are you going to do about your rogue agent?"

The Turian stiffened "We don't know that he is even a traitor!"

"And why would we lie?" Shepard hissed.

"You have no evidence as of yet! You have given us nothing to go on, only a Prothean we have yet to speak too. By your own admission, you cannot give us any hard proof of Saren's traitorous activities. You've got nothing!"

The Salarian looked thoughtful. "He is correct, Shepard. We cannot simply strip him of his status, nor can we issue a whole fleet to hunt down one agent on your word alone. It would raise too many questions, and if the Reapers do exist, then we cannot risk alerting them either."

"Then there exists only one option," the Asari looked at her fellow councillors, both of whom nodded, the Turian in particular grudgingly. "Shepard, until you have evidence, we cannot strip publically strip Saren of his spectre status. However, if what you say is correct, then Saren may be the biggest danger this Council has faced in centuries. However, we can make you a Spectre, for certain concessions," she finished with a deliberate look at Udina.

"The trade is not worth it! A Spectre for a Prothean? That's pure nonsense, such a trade would require more! Give humanity what it deserves, a position on the Council."

"No!" The Turian raised its voice. "You have not proven yourselves worthy of such an honour. You are still young and innocent, new born babes amongst a pack of Varren."

"We can finish these discussions later," the Asari said decisively. "For now, Ambassador, we wish to have a private audience with the Prothean."

"That is, acceptable." Udina said grudgingly. "And what of Shepard? Will you grant him Spectre status?"

"Yes…and no." The Salarian glanced at him. "We cannot publically make him a Spectre without being able to give legitimate reasons to our peoples for why we have given Spectre status to the first ever human. We can, however, give him all the resources accessible to Spectres. And as soon as you recover proof of Saren's treachery, we will make it a matter of public record. Is that acceptable to you, Udina?"

"Yes," Udina said grudgingly. "The agreement is acceptable. When you are ready, Councillors, the Prothean will be made accessible to you."

As the blue holograms disappeared, Udina turned to Shepard. "Shepard, you find me that evidence. If we can get you made a Spectre, it will give the Alliance much needed prestige, and make us one step closer towards joining the Council. Do you understand?"

"Only if I can't get a headshot," Shepard smirked slightly. "But I'll see what I can do."


End file.
